📖 Meaning
A family that for generations has prized literary learning and proper etiquette. '诗' refers to the Book of Songs (Shijing) and '礼' to the classic ritual texts (Rites of Zhou, Book of Etiquette, Book of Rites). It denotes a cultured household steeped in Confucian scholarship and moral propriety.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase comes from Volume 16 of 'Qi Xiu Lei Gao' (七修类稿), a Ming dynasty miscellany by the scholar Lang Ying (郎英). In the passage, Lang Ying laments that people cling to petty frugality while forgetting greater moral principles, and sighs that even families of poetic and ritual tradition have fallen to such behavior. The idiom encapsulates the Confucian ideal of a household that transmits literary refinement and ritual decorum across generations.
💡 Example Usage
他出身于诗礼之家，自幼便举止温文尔雅。
Born into a family of scholarly and ritual tradition, he carried himself with refined grace from a young age.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 诗礼之家
- Pinyin: shī lǐ zhī jiā
- Literal Translation: poetry, rites, of, family
- Category: Status
- Characters: 4